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The Waterman’s Ball had some exciting moments this year including great stories from Lifetime Achievement Honoree Rabbit Bartholomew, inspiring tales of conservation from Environmentalist of the Year Kris Tompkins, and a feisty speech from WSL Owner Dirk Ziff.

In addition, Natasha Ziff, who is also an owner of the WSL and an avid surfer, spoke about her love of the sport and admiration of the athletes. She also said she is especially proud of the WSL’s environmental efforts and its quest to improve pay and conditions for women surfers.

The live auction took an exhilarating turn this year when the WSL and the Kelly Slater Wave Co. offered a private day of surfing at the Surf Ranch.

The bidding was fierce, and went back and forth quickly, with the price skyrocketing to about $39,500. Then the WSL jumped in and offered more days at the Ranch if the bidders would agree to pay $40,000 each.

In the end, Ted Li of Boardriders, Nick Street and Bobby Gascon of Vans, and Evan Slater of Hurley and his wife, Jennifer, came away with their own days at the ranch.

That means that that one auction item alone earned $120,000 for ocean environmental charities.

Over the years, the Waterman’s event has raised more than $8 million for charity. “For a bunch of surfers, that’s not bad,” said Paul Naude, President of the SIMA Environmental Fund.

We took lots of photos of the night, which are below in our slide show.

We also have full transcripts of both Dirk and Natasha Ziff’s speeches in separate stories.

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  Ted Li of Boardriders after winning one of the private days at the Surf Ranch for $40,000

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  Vans Marketing dream team, Nick Street and Bobby Gascon, who won a private day at the Surf Ranch during the live auction

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  Evan and Jennifer Slater after they paid $40,000 for a private day at the Surf Ranch

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  Professional Surfer Lakey Peterson, WSL Owner Dirk Ziff, WSL CEO Sophie Goldschmidt and WSL owner Natasha Ziff - SES file photo

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  Bob and Shelley Hurley

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  Stokehouse CEO Paul Naude, also President of the SIMA Environmental Fund

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  Boardriders CEO Dave Tanner with Cathey Curtis of Billabong

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  Paul Naude with the honorees: Rabbit Bartholomew, Dirk Ziff, Natasha Ziff and Kris Tompkins. Kris's late husband, Doug, was also honored.

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  Kevin Meehan of RVCA and wife, Andrea

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  Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Rabbit Bartholomew and Graham Stapelberg of WSL

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  Chad DiNenna of Nixon and wife, Paola, with Jakue Aguerre

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  Deanna Jackson, Ajai Datta, and Leila Heydari of Billabong

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  Team Vans: Dave and Taryn Tichiaz, Henry and Trish Cosio

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  Sonia North and Shannan North of Billabong

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  Allison Roberts of Billabong and Fuzzy Schroeder of Quiksilver

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  Mikey Rangel, Ryan Hitzel and Drew Dolkas of Roark

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  Lindy Rich of Stance, Brandon Rich of Journeymen, and Mitch Whitaker of Vans

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  Quiksilver and Roxy, back row - Ted Li, David Tanner, Sasha Hartloff, Fuzzy Schroeder, Mike Reilly, Ryan Keenan. Front row - Cynthia Son, Jeff Brusven, John Hunt

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  Mike Carter, Max Beach, Bruce Beach

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  Mike Wallace of Billabong, middle, congratulates Wendy and Peter Booysen of iSync Solutions, left, who won a week at the Billabong house on the North Shore during the live auction

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  The Tokyo Olympic contingent was in town and Fernando dressed for the occasion: Tomohiro Mori, Takeshi Hashizume, Fernando Aguerre, Koji Murofushi and wife, Tomomi

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  New parents Jaci Schroeder and Eric Thomas of RVCA

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  Sarah Premo, the new O'Neill Women's Design Director, with Carrie Piccolini, Kari Johnson and Lindsay Henkels

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  Snowy Lonsway, the new VP of Sales at O'Neill, and wife, Cody

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  Josh Hansen of Hansen's and wife, Ashli, with Henry Cosio of Vans and wife, Trish

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  Lydia Ballesteros and Karen Sarver of Amuse Society and Steve Culley and wife, Diem. Diem is a top executive at Rip Curl.

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  Jade Peterson and Rip Curl's Shawn Peterson

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  Norb Garrett of TEN and Mark Tinkess of O'Neill

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  Ian Gibson and Kelly Gibson of Rip Curl

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  Aaron Coyle of Reef, Haley Hernandez, and Mike Matey of Reef

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  The Oakley table, left to right: Jennifer and Aaron Griffiths, Stephen and Erin DeMille, Kelly and Jason Prescott, team rider Tanner Waite, and the one and only Marty Mathiesen

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  Nanette De La Pena and Vinnie De La Pena of Vissla and D'Blanc

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  Cristine Olson and Lost's Joel Cooper

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  Vicki Redding of Vans and husband, Robert

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  Mark Christy, owner of the The Ranch and co-owner of Hobie Surf Shops, with Bob Hurley

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  Environmentalist of the Year Kris Tompkins and ISA President Fernando Aguerre

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  Andrea Harvey and Paul Harvey of Rip Curl

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  WSL announcer Joe Turpel and Wingnut Weaver

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  Robert Gerard of Friedman, Stroffe & Gerard with wife, Robin and son, Noah

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  Steven Fisher and Adrienne Belk of Surf Expo

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  Bryan Friedman of Friedman, Stroffe & Gerard and wife, Sandy

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  Aaron Tague of Agenda and Rosalie Gavagan of Enza Costa

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  Susie Barca, Simon Dufour of Moss Adams and wife, Shaye

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  Rod Tomlinson of Surf Expo and Cory Higgins of Jetty

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  Eddie Anaya and Mary Herbranson of Surfrider

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  Bob Hurley introduced Rabbit Bartholomew

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  Environmentalist of the Year Kris Tompkins, who along with her late husband, Doug, have helped create or expand 13 national parks in Chile and Argentina - a total of 13 million acres

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  Rabbit during his speech

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  The dinner took place on a fairway at The Ranch in Laguna Beach